Top 10: Father-Daughter Activities

You can’t always spend enough time with your daughter, but you can control the quality of the time you do have together. Depending on her personality and age, she may not fall in love with all the activities we recommend, but making the effort is the important part. She’ll appreciate the attention and it’ll go a long way in strengthening her self-esteem.

As with our previous article on father-son activities, these activities all follow some basic criteria. They’re reasonably simple, inexpensive, of mutual benefit and enjoyment, and act as a platform for instilling your values/teaching lessons.

Number 10

Baking

Don’t mistake this for sexism; we mean you should bake together and discover how healthy and fun it can be. Face it: A lot of kids have lousy diets. If it can’t be nuked, they haven’t a clue how to make it. Teach her or, if applicable, learn together. You can begin this when she’s young enough to help mix ingredients, and as the years go by she can work the oven with supervision. She’ll learn healthy eating habits that’ll stay with her when she’s on her own.

Number 9

Hiking

There’s something about getting back to nature that enables parents and kids to bond. It could be the break from everyday surroundings. Maybe it’s the separation from the distractions of computers, games, phones, and friends. Regardless, getting outdoors together and hiking is a simple activity that can mean more than you imagined. From childhood onward, she’ll learn nature has some pretty cool hi-res graphics of its own all while she gets exercise and fresh air.

Number 8

Movies

When we were their age, kid-friendly movies didn’t hit the big screen as often as today. Today’s movies keep kids engrossed while injecting below-the-radar humor for adults. You can find a lot of appropriate DVDs for her from an early age. Then after a few years, you can take her to the theater for new releases. And while there may not be as many great choices from our generation, you can still introduce them to her along the way. All in all, this is great fun and it allows you to control the content she sees.